TimeToast Project 9b

Comments4Kids Summary

Gabe
Gabe was a fourth grader who was blogging about how he believed that the Lock Ness Monster was still alive.  He said that there was enough evidence to support his theory.  I responded back by telling him I thought that there was enough evidence to support that there was a Lock Ness Monster one time or another somewhere in the world.  He responded back by stating the Lock Ness Monster is still alive today.  I thought his post was pretty interesting.

Yasmine
Yasmine was a writing about her hard swim practice that she went to.  She gave a lot of detail about the different things the coach made her do during practice to make her technique better.  I responded back to Yasmine by telling her that I liked how much detail she put into her post, it really made me feel that I could see her practice.  I told her that I could remember similar practices when I was in school for my running practices.  She responded back to me by stating that one day she hope to be in the Olympics for swimming.  I think that is a great goal that she has set for herself.

Paris 
Paris is a five year student at Pt England School in Auckland, NZ.  She was writing about her walk through the brush with her father.  While she was on her walk they spotted a dead rat and she got sick.  She did get medicine though and started to feel much better.  I responded back to her by writing that I thought it was great that her and her dad went on brush walks together.  I stated that I as well would have gotten sick if I were to see a dead rat.  I wrote that I was glad that she got to feeling better though, and wished her a better brush walk next time.
     

Blog Post 6

The Networked Student
This video reminded me a lot of EDM310.  This class is teaching us how to be a network student.  This is important to learn since we will be teaching networked students in the future.  If this class was not available I would probably be totally lost in a lot of areas of technology such as blogging.  That in turn would not help me in the classroom.  I think this class is helping me become prepared to become a teacher of a networked student.
I think this could be a great concept in the classroom.  This requires the student to actually learn something in many different ways, instead of being spoon feed the material.  The student could also use there information that they obtained for future uses.  I really liked the aspect of using other professors lectures.  I know personally I have done this myself.  A student might not understand the way you are teaching something and might need someones different point of view on the subject.
The networked students will still need teachers even though they are doing most of the work on there own.  The teacher will help guide the student in the direction they need to go.  They could also assists them if they need help with doing something.  I think the teacher is a very important aspect of the networked students education.


A 7th Grader's Personal Learning Environment (or PLN)
I thought her personal learning environment was great.  I thought it was interesting how much she new about obtaining information off of the internet.  It seems like that science class is really thinking outside of the box when it comes to research and assignments.  I wish when I was in seventh grade that I was being taught how to use the internet that way.  It made me realize how much more I can get out of my own personal learning network.  Each week I go on in this class I learn new ways to make technology work for me.

 Critiques of Smartboards
In the blog posts by Michael Staton, Why Smartboards Are A Dumb Initiative and Bill Ferriter, Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards, mainly talk about how there is no real point to the whiteboards in the classroom.  They think this because the teacher is still in front of the class lecturing and the students do not get any more out of the lesson as if the teacher were to use a regular chalk board.  They also argue how the whiteboards are a waste of money, and school districts like to buy them strictly for appearances.
The blog post I found was by Graham Stanley,The Interactive Whiteboard - white elephant or teacher's pet? In this blog Mr. Stanley agrees that if a teacher just uses the whiteboards as there old chalkboards then of course nothing is going to change in the classroom.  He stresses that whiteboards require training and practice to learn everything you can do with them.  He also states that if the training is not done then the equipment is wasted.  He writes " those of us who have actually used an IWB were positive about the potential."  I think that statement shows that whiteboards can do a lot of good now and in the future of the classroom. Another point he makes is that a good workman never blames his tool.  I think there is so much truth behind that.  To read Graham Stanley's full blog please visit the following link. http://blog-efl.blogspot.com/2007/08/interactive-whiteboard-white-elephant.html


 
 

Podcast Project

 To view Group 7 podcast on: Can podcasts be useful in the classroom that I will teach?
Please click on the link below.
  http://gallery.me.com/jstrange/101360

TimeToast Project 9a

Blog Post 5

Eagles' Nest Radio & Class Blog
I really enjoyed this podcast given by a group of third graders.  In this podcast they took turns talking about different things in Rome such as the architecture, history, Ceaser, and Cleopatra.  The thing that I enjoyed most was that they presented it as a radio station.  I thought this would be a great idea to use in my own classroom one day.  After each large section of material covered the class could do a podcast on what they had learned.  To do it a radio station theme would make it fun for the class.  I think this would give me a good chance to see the information the students know and didn't know.

The Benefits Of Podcasting In The Classroom
I learned a lot from this podcast.  I liked how the principal said at the end that a podcast is more geared to project based learning.  I think personally students get more out of that type of learning.  I liked the idea of how podcast can help student in many different areas.  I thought it was interesting that you could download your class podcast to itunes and they would be assessable to your class.  I now know it would be a great way to keep the parents involved and up to date of what is going on in the class.  Until this week I never really even knew what a podcast was, but now I see all of the areas it could become useful in the classroom.

Judy Scharf Podcast Collection
This helped me a lot.  I knew how to record onto audacity but I could not figure out anything from there.  This helped me know what I need to do to create and publish a podcast.  I will defiantly be using this site in the future for further questions I might have.

Shaska's Sentence

Blog Post 4

Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? by Scott McLeod  

 Scott McLeod Ph.D, is an associate professor in the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University.  He was also the co-creator of the video, Did You Know?.  My position on this blog was that I agree with what he is saying.  I do think that we need to monitor what our students are doing on the computers and teach them what is proper use of Internet and other technology devices.  There is tons of privacy settings out there that schools and parents can use to make technology devices out there safe for the children.  But if someone was just to keep a child from learning how to use these things then they are endangering that child from ever being able to get ahead.  From what I have witnessed in the past is that if you keep a child from doing something then chances are when they are not with you they are going to figure out how to do whatever it is they are being kept from.  So I think it is better to show the student the proper ways and to set up the privacy settings, then for them to find something on there own that they shouldn't see.

The iSchool Initiative  
The argument that is being made is to incorporate the iSchool into the classroom.  The reason being is because it would be cheaper per student and overall better for the school environment.  In doing so the schools would not have to buy text books, library books, paper, pencils, copiers etc...  The teacher student parent relationship is said to also be more of an open line of communication with this system. 
The question I have is what would happen if by chance everything were to crash?  Then would we loose all of our records and materials?  I think it is great to use technology in the classroom, but I do not think that we should totally depend on it.  I personally like to keep hard copies of documents.  I think the system is a great idea, but maybe it should be more of an integrated thing into the schools. I also think this program would fit better in the high school and college setting.  In the elementary setting certain skills need to be taught such as writing there names with a pen or pencil, and learn how to set up a math problem.  These are just my opinions and I might change my mind once I get into the classroom.

Watch The Lost Generation
I thought this was a great video, and I agree with what it is saying.  I am sad to say that I think how the first message played was how the world will probably be in the future.  When the message was reversed and read backward it was a much better outcome.  I hope that the future is more like reading the message backward than forwards.  I grew up in a family that always put family first and I would like to think that I will keep that motto going.  I love the comment that happiness comes from within, because I think no matter what money wont buy you long term happiness.

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir
My reaction to this video was that it was absolutely amazing.  If I was told that those singers have never met and that it was all done over the internet I would have thought no way is that possible, but I saw it with my own eyes and see it is possible.  I think this was a great idea to put this together to show what could be accomplished through technology.  This video show how the internet connects so many people that might have never had the chance to meet any other way.  I think the internet is like a door that is open to the world.  This was a great video.

Teaching in the 21st Century 
I thought this was a good video.  I think that Teri Hampton was suggesting that as teachers we need to be able to teach to the 21st century.  As I was watching it I thought about how it goes hand in hand with this class.  In this class we are learning how to use all kinds of different things that deals with technology to better our classrooms. I think what the video was saying was that students are going to use all of the different things out there so why not show them how to use it, we need to be the filters.  Teaching in the 21st century is going to be more technology based so we are going to have to incorporate technology into our everyday curriculum.  It is important that we teach students proper use of the things out there and how it could be beneficial to them in the future.

Presentation Project #5

C4T #1

Techer:Beth Still

Blog Site

Summary of Beth Still's post made on November 29:

This post Beth was trying to figure out a way to keep her students on track with their project being that last quarter 12 out of 38 failed the course because of this project. Then writes about how the previous quarter it was up to her students to get the work done on time, but this quarter she is making it a step-by-step system so the students could not move on to the next step until completing the previous one. She even went to the lengths of using a sticky note system to inform students that there work was late. Beth was wondering if she was doing to much for her student.

Summary of my comment #1 to the post made on November 29:

I commented on how I did not think she was doing to much for her students. I thought what she was doing to keep her students on track and engaged was a great idea. I commented on how she just wanted her students to succeed and that there was nothing wrong with that. I told her that that you don't know the background of everyone's life, but sometimes people just need a push in the right direction to get back on the right path.

Summary of Beth Still's Post Made On November 4:

This post Beth was writing about teaching kids in poverty. She was writing how she was an Social Studies teacher at a alternative education school, and how much she enjoyed doing it. She was asking for opinions on how to handle the classroom setting such as coming up with class rules, how flexible or strict do things need to be, and what is the best way to keep your students motivated.

Summary of my comment #2 to the post made on November 4:

I commented on how I have not personally taught "at risk" students in the classroom setting, but I have done volunteer work with "at risk" children. I wrote how it was a very exciting thing to see a child that has no goals actually start to reach for one. I commented on how the "at risk" children I worked with did not come from the best support systems at home.  I made the point sometimes people just need something to work towards. I thanked her for her post, I really enjoyed reading it.